I want to introduce you to the idea of a world before Adam. A world that was destroyed. A world that Adam had to rebuild as God's High Priest and king. Because it is this great task that the church is facing in the future as this world falls apart and God calls us to be his kings and priests to build a new heavens and a new earth.

This is not a blog about the argument as to how old the earth is. I stand with many Christian scholars and great preachers to say it is vastly older than 6,000 years.

Spurgeon had no problem with that. In a sermon on 17 June 1855 he said: "We do not know how remote the period of the creation of this globe may be – certainly many millions of years before the time of Adam. Our planet has passed through various stages of existence, and different kinds of creatures have lived on its surface, all of which have been fashioned by God."

Here is what I want to introduce you to that you may have a better understanding of the calling and ministry of Adam and Eve: There was a worldwide catastrophe in about 9,500 BC that is supported not only by archaeological records but scripture as well. And this was not the flood of Noah which took place about 2200 BC. There was a major earth catastrophe that not only caused planet wide destruction but devastated humanity of that time....and it was the job of Adam and Eve to "replenish the earth" and bring God's government and salvation to a devestated earth.

This idea I introduce to you for very specific reasons:
- The core story of the Bible is not about biology or cosmology or human origins. It is about God raising up a family and how humanity can become adopted into His family. These are the generations of the family of God starting with Adam who "was the son of God".
- It is about God raising up His sons again to heal the earth and bring His government to a earth that is devastated.
- It is about the fall of His sons and God sending His only begotten Son Jesus as the second Adam to restore us to our original purpose in Eden....which is to re-create a new heavens and a new earth.

And that means it would be very good to have a clear idea of the task that Adam faced.

When God created man and woman in times long distant past He gave them a command found in Genesis 1:26-28. They were given dominion over all the works of God and they were to be fruitful and multiply. This mankind consisted of all the races of the earth.

The mankind created on "day six" and Adam created in chapter 2 of Genesis are different. For those of you who believe that it was Adam and Eve created in one day on the 6th day.... go through the whole of Genesis 2 and read all the things Adam had to go through before God decided he needed help and there was no other woman capable of helping him so a special wife was to be created for him. It did not all happen in one day.

Earth Catastrophe....

In this short blog I cannot go through all the archaeological proofs of an earth catastrophe. My reference books here that I have used for those who want to study this further are "When the Earth Nearly Died: Compelling evidence of a catastrophic world change 9,500 BC" by DS Allen and JB De Lair; "The Day Behemoth and Leviathan Died" by David Allan Deal; "Earth's Shifting Axis" by Mac Strain. For those of you reading Graham Hancock's books his latest "Magicians of the God's" deals extensively with this as well as giving extensive proof of an ancient world civilization collapse around 10,000 BC.

The well known story of the Siberian mammoths, large hairy pre-elephant type creatures who are trapped in ice is indicative of this great catastrophe. What was found in their mouths and stomachs were flower edibles that cannot grow in the cold Siberian waste. All indications are that they were in a warm wet climate zone when they were almost instantly engulfed in a icy snow superstorm. And this was not the flood of Noah as Carbon 14 tests show a time thousands of years before Noah's timeline.

Ancient records show human settlements going back before 10,000 BC. There is no dispute about this and there is no need for Christians to get into an argument with the scientific community on this. What these records also clearly show are two things:
- there was some great earth wide catastrophe about 10,000 BC.
- that about 4000 BC there suddenly appeared the start of human civilization of cities, farming, writing etc. Whereas before this mankind was composed of a groups of wandering stragglers living as roaming hunter gatherers.

And that is precisely the time that Adam makes his appearance on earth! And that is where the Bible starts its story of the beginning of God's redemptive work of a lost humanity.

This lost humanity is incapable of fulfilling its divine mandate to take dominion over the earth unless and until there is an Adam/son of God present to bring God's law on earth and bring man into fellowship with God!

What does scripture say about this catastrophe...

There are many scripture indications of this earth-wide catastrophe...

One of the first is found in Genesis 1:1-2."In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...and the earth was without form and void" The word "was" in your Bible should have been translated "became" (see Strong word H1961 for reference). But now see what God Himself says of how He created the earth in Isaiah 45:18...

"Thus saith the Lord that created the heavens God himself that formed the earth and made it; He established it, He created it not in vain..."
That word "vain" in Hebrew is "tohu" which is the same word used in Genesis 1:2 and it means "to become a waste, a wilderness" (Strong's word H8414). God Himself says He did not create the world a waste, a wilderness. Genesis 1:2 says the "world became a waste and a wilderness". And then the Lord set about restoring His creation to where everything was good again.

How did it become a waste and wilderness. Well all the writers I referenced think a mighty meteor struck somewhere in the arctic and the intense enormous energy of this meteor hit caused a huge flooding of the earth as the arctic ice cap melted and then the debris from this meteor strike spread over the earth atmosphere blocking out the sun causing darkness over the earth and a major freezing event very quickly. Actually fascinating when you go into the details. It also makes a lot of sense of Genesis 1 where the darkness had to be dispelled, the resulting ice cap stretching over a lot of the earth had to be removed "and let the firmament divide the waters...etc" Giving the idea of the ice cap of waters to be removed from the earth back into the atmosphere etc.

While the "what and how" of the catastrophe is very interesting from a scientific point of view....the result for the remaining stragglers of humanity was that they congregated near the warmer areas of the Middle East living a miserable hunter gatherer existence. Until God sent a saviour "Adam who was the son of God" because there was no knowledge of God and "there was no man to till the ground".

Why the catastrophe? Well we are not given the reasons. But we can make reasonable inferences. By the time of Adam's creation we know that Satan was already in rebellion against God. I believe that there are enough indications for us from various sources to think that before Satan's rebellion he was a glorious Archangel with an extensive domain under his rulership.

We also are told in Scripture that when Satan rebelled there was war in heaven and Michael and his angles fought against the great dragon Satan and his angels and cast them out of the heavenlies. I believe this catastrophe that hit the earth was part of that war.

Here is what Jeremiah 4:23-27 says of that catastrophe..."I beheld the earth and low it was without form and void (Jeremiah is seeing a vision of the earth of Genesis 1:2 when the earth became desolate); and the heavens and they held no light. (The dust and debris cloud blocking the sun). I beheld the mountains and behold they trembled and hills moved lightly (massive world earthquakes from the meteor strike). I beheld and lo there was no man and the birds of heaven were fled. I beheld and lo the fruitful place was a wilderness and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord and by His fierce anger. For thus said the Lord, The whole land shall be desolate yet I will not make a full end"

The Lord did not make a full end of it. He recreated the desolate earth. He gathered the stragglers of humanity and gave them a high priest/ king, called Adam to bring them back to God and to help them to fulfil their creation mandate...replenish the earth and take dominion over all the works of God's hand.

Now here is a further controversial idea.....

The war in the heavenlies against Satan's rebellious kingdom was not only here on earth but there are evidences of destruction in our solar system. Many scientists are convinced the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter is where a planet used to be that exploded and left a massive debris field of asteroids. Your best reference for this is the astronomer Dr. Tom van Flandern's book "Dark Matter, Missing Planets and New Comets". A fascinating scientific research into the exploded planet hypothesis.

Then there is Mars....

I have for years been following Richard C. Hoagland's work after reading his monumental book "The Monuments of Mars: A city on the edge of forever." Perhaps by now you have seen the famous photos of the Viking pictures of the face on Mars and the pyramids and structures that look like cities on Mars.

But Mars is very intriguing to NASA scientists because the evidence is now accepted that Mars once had not only an atmosphere but flowing rivers and waters. meaning it was a lot warmer in times past with an atmosphere that could retain heat to allow water to flow. But Mars also shows evidence of some kind of major catastrophe that struck it.

The best reference work for this is NASA scientist Dr. John Brandenburg and his two books "Death on Mars: The Discovery of a Planetary Nuclear Massacre" and his "Life and Death on Mars: The New Mars Synthesis". His books are filled with scientific data to which he has access to as a NASA scientist the most startling being the discovery by NASA that Mars has strong amount of the isotope Xenon 109 on its surface; which isotope can only be produced from a nuclear fission bomb!

There is a lot of material to absorb here and to consider. Most of which evangelical Christians are not ever made aware of. I will in future need to return to this material for more in-depth analysis but for now I want to emphasize the following:

- We are facing also in our time a world civilization collapse. The world is in rebellion against God. But God is now busy through His church with what Peter on the day of Pentecost described as "the restoration of all things".

- This restoration is a restoration of power and glory that Adam lost but which Christ came as the second Adam to restore to us. Which is why Paul says in Romans 8:19 "For the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God". The problems of this earth are only going to be solved by the church manifesting the power and presence of God on the earth once again.

- The purpose of this restoration of all things is to fulfil the task that God gave Adam originally to heal the nations and bring salvation and God's kingdom to the earth after the catastrophe of world rebellion.

- Do not be surprised when they find ancient relics on Mars and the moon. They are part of a lost world that was in rebellion against God long before Adam. And if you ever wondered where demons come from (there is a difference between demons and fallen angels) then that lost world civilization is your answer according to the ancient book of Enoch.

- As the present world system crumbles and falls apart do not expect to be taken out of here. Your job and the church's job is to restore Eden and build a new heaven and new earth...read Rev. 22. We are to heal the nations and bring the presence and power and Lordship of Jesus Christ to earth. And then from here....to the rest of the universe as we take dominion over all the works of God.